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Source: Daily Mail By David Gardner
(NSI News Source Info) LONDON, UK - February 14, 2010: Islamic scholars have forbidden Muslim travellers from passing through full body scans at airports because they violate religious rules on nudity.
The Fiqh Council of North America issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, yesterday warning Muslims not to go through the scanners.
‘It is a violation of clear Islamic teachings that men or women be seen naked by other men and women,’ read the order.
‘Islam highly emphasises haya (modesty) and considers it part of faith. The Quran has commanded the believers, both men and women, to cover their private parts,’ it added.
The ban is the latest privacy blow to the controversial x-ray machines now in place at Heathrow, Manchester and many airports around the world.
In the U.S., there are now forty scanners in nineteen airports and could be as many as 450 by the end of the year.
They were implemented as part of a global security crackdown ordered after 
the thwarted Christmas Day bombing when Nigerian former London university student Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab smuggled explosives onto a US-bound plane hidden in his underpants.
The new scanners were implemented after the bombing attempt of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on Christmas Day Some Muslim-American groups were said to be supporting the fatwa last night.
In the U.S., the Transportation Security Administration said Muslims will have the option of a pat down search by a security guard.
However, in Britain, travellers who refuse to pass through the scanners could be barred from boarding.
The Muslim Council of Britain has not yet responded to a call for comment.
The powerful council of ten scholars that issued the fatwa is affiliated with the Islamic Society of North America.
The ruling won support last night from the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
'We support the Figh Council’s statement on full-body scanners and believe that the religious and privacy rights of passengers can be respected while maintaining safety and security,’ said national director Nihad Awad.
The TSA said it is committed to keeping passengers safe and insisted the scanners that show the outlines of a person’s body in graphic detail did not represent an invasion of privacy.
‘The TSA's mission is to keep the travelling public safe. Advanced imaging technologies are an important tool in a multi-layered security system to detect evolving threats such as improvised explosive devices,’ said a spokesman.
‘Use of these technologies includes strong protections in place to safeguard passenger privacy. Screening images are automatically deleted, and the officer viewing the image will never see the passenger.’
The TSA stressed that the body scanners are ‘optional to all passengers’.
Those who turn them down in the US ‘will receive equivalent screening that may include a physical pat-down, hand-wanding, and other technologies.’
‘Physical pat-downs are performed by Transportation Security Officers of the same sex as the passenger in a private screening area, if the passenger requests.’
Body scanners do not produce photos’, the agency added. Rather, the images ‘look like chalk outlines’
Source: Daily Mail By David Gardner
(NSI News Source Info) LONDON, UK - February 14, 2010: Islamic scholars have forbidden Muslim travellers from passing through full body scans at airports because they violate religious rules on nudity.
The Fiqh Council of North America issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, yesterday warning Muslims not to go through the scanners.
‘It is a violation of clear Islamic teachings that men or women be seen naked by other men and women,’ read the order.‘Islam highly emphasises haya (modesty) and considers it part of faith. The Quran has commanded the believers, both men and women, to cover their private parts,’ it added.
The ban is the latest privacy blow to the controversial x-ray machines now in place at Heathrow, Manchester and many airports around the world.
In the U.S., there are now forty scanners in nineteen airports and could be as many as 450 by the end of the year.
They were implemented as part of a global security crackdown ordered after the thwarted Christmas Day bombing when Nigerian former London university student Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab smuggled explosives onto a US-bound plane hidden in his underpants.
The new scanners were implemented after the bombing attempt of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on Christmas Day Some Muslim-American groups were said to be supporting the fatwa last night.
In the U.S., the Transportation Security Administration said Muslims will have the option of a pat down search by a security guard.
However, in Britain, travellers who refuse to pass through the scanners could be barred from boarding.
The Muslim Council of Britain has not yet responded to a call for comment.
The powerful council of ten scholars that issued the fatwa is affiliated with the Islamic Society of North America.
The ruling won support last night from the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
'We support the Figh Council’s statement on full-body scanners and believe that the religious and privacy rights of passengers can be respected while maintaining safety and security,’ said national director Nihad Awad.
The TSA said it is committed to keeping passengers safe and insisted the scanners that show the outlines of a person’s body in graphic detail did not represent an invasion of privacy.
‘The TSA's mission is to keep the travelling public safe. Advanced imaging technologies are an important tool in a multi-layered security system to detect evolving threats such as improvised explosive devices,’ said a spokesman.
‘Use of these technologies includes strong protections in place to safeguard passenger privacy. Screening images are automatically deleted, and the officer viewing the image will never see the passenger.’
The TSA stressed that the body scanners are ‘optional to all passengers’.
Those who turn them down in the US ‘will receive equivalent screening that may include a physical pat-down, hand-wanding, and other technologies.’
‘Physical pat-downs are performed by Transportation Security Officers of the same sex as the passenger in a private screening area, if the passenger requests.’
Body scanners do not produce photos’, the agency added. Rather, the images ‘look like chalk outlines’
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